State-owned transport company that received R1 billion in bailouts has only 23 buses left

Great North Transport (GNT) has seen its operational bus fleet drop from 540 to 23 as of July 2025.

GNT operates under the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (LEDA), connecting municipal centres like Polokwane to the province’s townships and rural areas.

At its peak, the state-owned public transport company served 200 routes across Limpopo and parts of Mpumalanga, carrying 36 million passengers a year.

Years of financial distress have severely reduced GNT’s operational capabilities, despite it receiving R1 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts over the last decade.

This was reportedly allocated for buses, repairs, maintenance, employee costs, severance packages, statutory obligations, and historical payables.

Despite this, GNT said the funding failed to reverse its decline, admitting to having weak internal controls and low operational compliance.

In August 2026, GNT announced it was seeking a further R199 million bailout to prevent a total collapse.

It has also issued Section 189 notices to initiate consultations on potential retrenchment proceedings for its staff complement.

The Special Investigating Unit is set to complete its investigation into the state of GNT towards the end of September, after which it will present its findings to the President and Parliament.

Jacques Smalle, Member of the Provincial Legislature in Limpopo, said previously unsuccessful rescue attempts failed to address the root causes of GNT’s decline.

These included a fleet renewal initiative in 2013, a formal turnaround strategy commissioned in 2017, and a second turnaround driven by the LEDA in 2021.

“Any attempt to turn GNT around without first confronting the reasons for its collapse and taking the necessary remedial action is doomed to repeat the same failures,” Smalle said.

A SCOPA report adopted by the Limpopo Provincial Legislature in 2025 reportedly described GNT as a “fiscal black hole” and called for a full enquiry into its situation.

The report also recommended withholding state funding until governance reforms were implemented and even proposed placing it under national intervention.

Since then, a more recent SCOPA oversight report found that GNT has continued to endure operational, financial, governance, and service-delivery challenges.

SCOPA has now called for urgent corrective action at GNT, including a costed, time-bound turnaround strategy and increased oversight of the entity.

“New buses are welcome, but new buses alone will not fix GNT,” Smalle said. “Public transport must be funded. Failure must not be bailed out.”

“Getting buses back on the road is necessary, but fixing GNT’s governance, finances, and administration is not negotiable.”